n the house of an honest farmer in Yorkshire, named George Gilbertson, a
Boggart had taken up his abode. He here caused a good deal of annoyance,
especially by tormenting the children in various ways. Sometimes their
bread-and-butter would be snatched away, or their porringers of bread-and-milk
be capsized by an invisible hand; for the Boggart never let himself be seen;
at other times, the curtains of their beds would be shaken backwards and
forwards, or a heavy weight would press on and nearly suffocate them. The
parents had often, on hearing their cries, to fly to their aid. There was a
kind of closet, formed by a wooden partition on the kitchen-stairs, and a
large knot having been driven out of one of the deal-boards of which it was
made, there remained a hole. Into this one day the farmer's youngest boy
stuck the shoe-horn, with which he was amusing himself, when immediately it
was thrown out again, and struck the boy on the head. The agent was, of
course, the Boggart, and it soon became their sport (which they called
laking with Boggart) To put the shoe-horn into the hole and have it
shot back at them.The Boggart at length proved such a torment that the farmer and his wife resolved to quit the house and let him have it all to himself. This was put into execution, and the farmer and his family were following the last loads of furniture when a neighbour named John Marshall came up.
"Well, Georgey," said he, "and soa you're leaving t'ould house at last?"
"Heigh, Johnny, my lad, I'm forced tull it; for that damned Boggart torments us soa, we can neither rest neet nor day for't. It seems loike to have such a malice again t'poor bairns, it onmost kills my poor dame here at thoughts on't, and soa, ye see, we're forced to flit loike."
He scarce had uttered the works when a voice from a deep upright churn cried out, "Aye, aye, Georgey, we're flitting ye see."
"Od damn thee," cried the poor farmer, "if I'd known thou'd been there, I wadn't ha' stirred a peg. Nay, nay, it's no use, Mally," turning to his wife, "we may as weel turn back again to t'ould hoose as be tormented in another that's not so convenient."
MOTIF: f482.3.1.1